There are basically four types of telepathology techniques:
a. Telepathology by transmission of static images . This is done by viewing images that have been captured by a digitizing program and sent electronically to the consultant who then analyses these in a monitor. This limits the viewing to those images selected by the transmitting site.
b. Dynamic Telepathology where images are captured by a video camera and sent electronically, real time via telephone lines. With this method a pathologist can analyze several fields uninterrupted by the relatively much slower process of static digitizing-capture and send system.
c. In Dynamic Robotic telepathology a pathologist can control from a remote site a microscope via robotics. This allows the pathologist at the remote site to actually move the slide and get a complete view of the tissue on the slide rather than have the remote site decide which slides to view. The purely dynamic system however sacrifices some of the acuity for speed of transmission.
d. There is, however, a fourth type of technology termed Hybrid technology that incorporates the two technologies. With the dynamic component the pathologist can scan a slide and then capture statically an image by digitization and view, edit and store the image. The editing component is extremely useful to annotate mark and add text to the image for subsequent retrieval and analysis. Telepathology Project in the VAMC
Dynamic Real-time telepathology systems have been available now for the past few years. One of these systems has been operating for over a year between the Milwaukee, Wisconsin VAMC and the Iron Mountain VAMC .The system includes a live video link at H.320 that enables teleconferencing between the two sites. This aspect is critical because if there is no pathologist at the remote site, close communication between the pathologist at the Mother-site and the technologists at the remote must site be close and accurate in order to achieve good results.
Their results have excellent correlation as published in the Journal of Human Pathology
Vol. 28:1:8-12,1997 in VISN6 we currently have a similar system which has been in operation over one month. Over Two Hundred cases have been diagnosed via this method between the Beckley VAMC and the Richmond VAMC